Suburban
Dangers
Sixteen-year-old
Kaki Jones lives a normal life in suburbia. She makes good grades,
runs on the cross-country team, and helps care for her younger brothers
and sisters. Her younger brother, Brandon is the troubled child. He
parties, fights at school, keeps photos of girls on his cell phone, and
runs into trouble with the police.
But
Kaki harbors a secret. After meeting cool girl Sydney Diaz, Kaki’s life is
forever changed. Now, she’s a sophomore by day and a commodity sold at
the hands of gang members by night. Living a double life and controlled by
threats of violence against her family, Kaki sees no chance of escape.
When
parents look the other way and strangers offer more affection than a
father, God’s deliverance is the only answer.
E-book
available May 12. In print June 1.
my review. also on goodreads.
Wow. I'm lost for words having read this one. Although a YA read, the book is written from both child and parent's POV. A gritty, thrilling story about drugs, sex-trafficking and the dangers of porn. It's definitely one I will suggest my teenage daughter read. It'll appeal to both teenagers and adults alike.
my review. also on goodreads.
Wow. I'm lost for words having read this one. Although a YA read, the book is written from both child and parent's POV. A gritty, thrilling story about drugs, sex-trafficking and the dangers of porn. It's definitely one I will suggest my teenage daughter read. It'll appeal to both teenagers and adults alike.
Kaki
Tuesday, September 15
Kaki was sixteen when she met Sydney Diaz.
The school year had just started, and Sydney was new to Runnymede Secondary. With her long, straight, black hair that hung down to her waist and a lot of piercings, Sydney was one of those girls who stood out. She was in Kaki’s algebra and gym class, but right away Kaki could tell Sydney didn’t want to be in school. Her face was tight and hard, and she put her feet up on the desk until the teacher told her to take them off.
In gym, Kaki was flattered when Sydney started talking to her. They stood out by the track, waiting their turn to run. Kaki stretched, pulling her ankles behind her. She liked running. She was thin and willowy with long legs that carried her along with speed and agility. “Granddaddy-Long-Legs” her father used to call her. She’d hated that. It made her feel as if her legs were too long, too thin. Weird-looking, somehow.
Sydney looked as if she could be pretty fast, too, but she was just leaning up against the chain-link fence with a slack-faced and bored expression. Kaki could almost envision her with a cigarette in hand, blowing smoke into the autumn haze—if they’d been allowed to do that.
“So like, what do people do around here?” Sydney stared off at the other runners circling the track.
Because Kaki was surprised that this interesting, probably super-cool girl was talking to her, she did a double-take to make sure she was the one being addressed. She didn’t really have a lot of friends. On those ridiculous surveys that the school made them take every year—the ones that asked questions like: How would you describe yourself?—she always answered the same. Shy. I like to read, run track, and sometimes hang out with the girls on the track team. But she couldn’t really say she was great friends with any of those kids. Kaki looked at Sydney and shrugged. She couldn’t think of how to answer her. “Um…I don’t know.”
“I mean, like, what’s fun to do around here? It seems like this school’s pretty lame.”
Kaki laughed out of politeness. “I guess it depends on what you think is fun. Everyone around here does the normal kind of stuff.”
Sydney yawned, bending her leg back to brace herself against the chain-link. “What do you like to do?”
Kaki’s face warmed. People didn’t usually ask her that. “I don’t know. I’m kind of boring, I guess. I run track, and, well, that’s about it, really.”
“Girls, you’re up!” At the sound of Coach Plant’s voice, they moved toward the starting line.
Sydney pushed herself off the fence as though it took an enormous amount of effort and stood beside her at the line.
“Go!” the coach called as he clicked his stopwatch. They began to jog. Sydney was much slower, and she kept motioning with her hand for Kaki to hang back. Finally, Kaki slowed her pace as much as she could.
“You got a job?” she asked, already starting to pant a little, even though she was barely running.
“No,” Kaki said. “I just turned sixteen.” She didn’t know anyone who had a job.
“So? I know a lot of sixteen-year-olds who make a lot of money.”
“Really? Doing what?”
Sydney pointed her thumb at herself. “Like me—I mean, I’m sixteen, but with what I’m doing now, I’m making so much money, I’ll be able to retire by the age of twenty-two.”
Kaki wondered if she was lying. Sometimes kids just said stuff to seem cool. She focused on the finish line ahead. “Wow. That’s amazing. What are you doing to make so much money?”
Sydney looked over, and Kaki got the feeling Sydney was trying to read her—trying to see if she could trust her.
“I don’t know if I should tell you right now.”
“OK.” It didn’t really matter to her whether Sydney told her or not. If she was selling drugs or something, Kaki didn’t want to know anyway.
“Maybe later.”
As they crossed the finish line, Coach Plant said, “That’s the slowest I’ve ever seen you run, Kaki. What’s going on with you today? Let’s pick up the pace!”
~*~
At home that night while Kaki checked her social media sites, she was surprised to see that Sydney had followed her. @HotSydGirl was Sydney’s handle, but Kaki immediately recognized Sydney’s picture—a close-up shot of her posing for the camera with puckered lips. Later, Sydney’s picture and name popped up on another one of Kaki’s accounts. Sydney Diaz has just followed you.
Kaki was excited. She’d figured Sydney would think she was a total loser after their conversation on the track. “Maybe I’m just one of the only people she knows at school,” she said out loud as she clicked to confirm. She scanned Sydney’s page for her statuses, pictures, and people she knew. Sydney had over 2,000 followers on one account and over a thousand on her other accounts.
Inferiority crept over Kaki. She only had around 160 followers, and most of those were family members, distant cousins, and a few friends. Her other social networking accounts were just as pathetic, and she wondered how it felt to be someone like Sydney Diaz—obviously popular, especially with the guys. Most of the posts to her page were messages from them:
hey syd. where u been girl?
heard you moved schools. Ill still c u this weekend rite?
got some peeps for u to meet.
There were a lot of posted selfies from guys and a few girls dressed up in short-short skirts, high-high heels, and tight-tight tops. Sydney definitely moved in different social circles.
Pictures on Kaki’s page were of friends making faces in the camera, a few family photos, and a lot of shared dorky sayings: Only you can make it happen and Just because someone doesn’t like you doesn’t mean you’re not likeable. Kaki felt too intimated to even send Sydney a private message. And she resolved not to be clingy at school either. The quickest way to drive a cool girl away from you was to be too needy.
But over the next few weeks, Sydney hung out with her as though they’d been friends forever. That was when she was in school. Sydney was absent a lot, and Kaki could tell she had a lot of boyfriends, both inside and outside of school.
buy links - http://pelicanbookgroup.com/ec/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=37_61&products_id=805
Reviews
"This
book is a page-turner that defies a reader’s ability to stop once the book is
begun. Lee is quickly becoming one of my go-to authors for a good read."
—Edie
Melson, author and blogger
Author
Megan Whitson Lee has crafted yet another spine-tingling, page-turning
contemporary novel in her latest release, Suburban
Dangers. This author has the ability to present believable,
three-dimensional characters, dealing with real-life issues, compounded with
danger. If you want a gripping, engaging read, Suburban Dangers is the book for you!
–Kathi
Macias, award-winning author of more than fifty books
Suburban Dangers by Megan
Whitson Lee is a must read for anyone who loves children, whether parents,
extended family members, or caring friends. Think the evils of pornography and
teen sex trafficking only happens in other countries or neighborhoods far from
your front doorstep? Ms. Lee’s carefully researched story of teen Kaki and her
family’s plunge into disintegration is a fast-paced, riveting read. You will
not want to put this book down because there seems as if there is no hope for
this family to come together, let alone survive and thrive… yet, the very
realistic characters make you root for them and you want to know what happens.
Fortunately, the story’s powerful, moving ending will encourage the reader to
set one’s eyes on the only One who can straighten out the biggest of troubles.
--Elaine
Stock, author of Always With You, Winner
of the 2017 Christian Small Publishers Association Book of the Year
Suburban
Dangers is one of those books that sucks you in and doesn't let you go until
the last page is read. I was page turning almost faster than I could read as
Megan Whitson Lee wove the tale of a family that was cracking to pieces behind
the facade of their perfect suburban image. Its gritty truth with seeds of hope
will appeal to both youth and adult readers. This is a beautifully written
novel you aren't going to want to miss!
--Julie
Hall
Author
of award-winning book Huntress (Life After, Book 1)
“Shocking,
dismaying, hard-to-put down not a good bedtime read but a decidedly
thought-provoking, heart-wrenching, soul-searching MUST READ.”
–Jennifer,
Goodreads Review
Author
Bio
Megan
Whitson Lee is a wife, a mom of two greyhounds, an editor for Pelican Book
Group, and a high school English teacher. Her novel, Captives, won the 2016 Director's Choice Award and was a finalist for
a Selah Award in the women's contemporary fiction category at Blue Ridge
Mountain Christian Writers Conference.
Megan
writes inspirational women's contemporary and historical fiction featuring
characters standing at the crossroads of major life decisions, crises of faith,
and moral dilemmas. Her novels depict real-life problems, address universal
spiritual and moral struggles, and offer messages of hope, recovery, and
redemption through God’s saving grace.
Twitter:
@MeganWhitsonLee
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